Ruble plunges 30% amid Ukraine invasion

On Monday morning, the Russian ruble fell nearly 29 percent against the dollar, reaching an all-time low as markets assessed the impact of sanctions on Russia amid a growing backlash against the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.

According to Factset data, the ruble was trading as low as 119 per dollar as offshore trading began in the morning during Asia hours, down from nearly 84 per dollar at the previous close. The ruble later recovered some of its losses and was last trading at 105.27 during the Asian afternoon hours.

As part of its efforts to contain the financial market fallout, Russia’s central bank confirmed on Monday that it had barred its brokers from carrying out sell orders from foreigners.

After days of air, sea, and land attacks on Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin activated his country’s nuclear deterrence forces on high alert on Sunday.

Russia’s advance into Ukraine continues, but Ukraine retains control of its capital, Kyiv, and its second-largest city, Kharkiv. On Sunday, Russian military vehicles entered Kharkiv.

President Joe Biden responded to Moscow’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine last week by announcing a series of sanctions against Russian banks, the country’s sovereign debt, and Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Over the weekend, the United States, its European allies, and Canada agreed to disconnect key Russian banks from the SWIFT interbank messaging system, which connects over 11,000 banks and financial institutions in over 200 countries and territories.

The EU also announced on Sunday that it would close its airspace to Russian aircraft.

Following the blockage of Russian banks, there were fears that bank cards would cease to function or that cash withdrawals would be restricted. SWIFT